FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Francisco, CA August 8, 2006 -- Please join SF READY at the next Business Preparedness Roundtable on Tuesday, August 15, 2006. The topic is NIMS Overview and Emergency Antibiotic Dispensing in San Francisco: Interface Between SF Businesses and the Office of Emergency Services & Homeland Security Using the National Incident Command System (NIMS).

Our speakers will be Amy E. Pine, MPH, Director of the Communicable Disease Prevention Unit, San Francisco Department of Public Health; and Dave Sullivan, Emergency Planner, San Francisco Office of Emergency Services & Homeland Security.

The focus of the presentations will be on practical applications of the NIMS structure during an infectious disease emergency requiring the dispensing of antibiotics on a massive scale.

During an emergency of this nature, protocols for cross-agency and business community coordination are imperative. Ms. Pine and Mr. Sullivan will illustrate the practical use of NIMS for businesses who agree to dispense antibiotics to their own employees. The San Francisco Department of Public Health plans to activate point of dispensing or POD sites throughout San Francisco. The PODs will be set up to dispense antibiotics to San Francisco's daytime population of 1.2 million people within 36 hours. The throughput is extremely aggressive -- 2,000 people per hour, and anything that can help decrease the burden on PODs will help. Businesses can play an important role by offering to dispense to their own employees. Self-dispensing plans in businesses, coordinated with the Department of Public Health, would also help in terms of continuity of operations.

DATE: Tuesday, August 15, 2006
TIME: 12:00 noon - 1:30pm (Feel free to bring your lunch)
FREE! No need to pre-register (doors will be closed when meeting room is full)
LOCATION: Charles Schwab & Company, 101 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA.

SF READY is a collaboration of the SF Office of Emergency Services & Homeland Security, The SF Chamber of Commerce, and numerous concerned businesses. SF READY produces roundtables every other month, free to the public, on topics of business emergency preparedness and business continuity. For more information about SF READY please visit our web site at:
www.sfready.org or call 415-681-2920.